Video introduction to this blogpost (see below for the rest of the post):

Update (Feb 15, 2017): It’s the three year anniversary of this post this week, so I’ve updated it with some contrabass clarinet air sounds and a bit more information, hope that’s useful!

Recently, a composer sent me an e-mail asking a number of questions about air sounds. I made a number of recordings for him, and thought it seemed like the perfect excuse for a blog post on the subject. A lot of these questions get asked over and over again, so this blog post aims to serve as a kind of introduction to writing air sounds for Bb and bass clarinet.

This post doesn’t aim to be comprehensive, at least, not right off the bat. I’m hoping that you’ll leave comments with your questions, and I’ll try my best to address them all. I’m sure there are plenty of things I haven’t thought about, and I’ll update this post as the questions come rolling in.

There are plenty of sound files here. Things are fairly quiet (with a fairly close mic), so I’d recommend some headphones. And anytime I mention pitch, we’re talking about transposed pitches. Bb clarinet a major second higher; Bass clarinet a major 9th higher.

First, some basic things to keep in mind:

* A clarinet is not a flute. This sounds obvious, and it is, but needs to be stressed. Clarinetists are constantly being asked to match volume of air sounds with that of their flutist colleagues, and it’s almost never possible. The flute can produce quite a lot more volume, and the instrument is slightly better suited to nice mixes between pitch and air sounds. I’m not sure that I can demonstrate through recordings the dynamic capabilities of clarinet air tones, so just believe me when I write, it’s never going to be as loud as you’re hoping it will be.

* Be careful, especially when using the bass and contrabass clarinets, not to forget about unavoidable key noise. You’re going to hear it in the recordings that follow, but just keep in mind there’s a lot of mechanics here. If you’re going to write something wherein you amplify the air sounds, this is especially important to keep in mind. If you want running passages and want to avoid as much key noise as possible, a general tip is to make sure the runs move in ascending pitch.

* If you’re going to write air sounds with an open throat position (great for getting a kind of “white noise” effect), do be aware that your player may start to feel light-headed after awhile.

Air vs. Pitch

One of the questions I most get asked is what is the range of possibilities between air and pitch.

And finally, to give you a clearer idea of the kind of spectrum available, here are two different clips. I play each octave five times, each time gradually adding a little bit more pitch, first on Bb then on bass clarinet:

I like how with the contra, shifting between vowel sounds brings out harmonics. It’s hard to control in that I’m not sure that specific vowel sounds on specific notes are always going to bring out the same harmonics (though perhaps some research should be done here), but I find it very beautiful.

Because the mouthpiece is off in these clips, do pay attention to how much more often I have to breathe in the example clips, because air is moving directly into the instrument without any interference from the reed.

First of all, two examples of this effect on the Bb clarinet, in order to demonstrate the difference between having the barrel on or off. Extreme subtlety of difference here, but while we’re being thorough…. here are two octaves with the barrel still on:

For some more examples without the mouthpiece, read on to the ‘inhaling’ section…

Inhaling

Inhaling is also a perfectly viable effect, but please do be careful. If using the reed and mouthpiece, the clarinetist can not breathe audibly in for as long as she can breathe out. But you can hear very easily what’s comfortable in the sound files, as you’ll hear me breathe out fairly regularly. Also worth noticing is that the pattern does repeat once you get to the break (including and from B4), so when writing these, it’s best to stick to pitches below this. Also, I’ve aimed for a kind of action mezzo-forte, a nice compromise between volume and breath duration.

Another great technique is to have the clarinetist maintain a short distance from the mouthpiece itself and with pursed lips, blow air directly at the mouthpiece tip. This can be done by putting the bottom lip on the reed and blowing (very helpful for stability).

In the sound example for the Bb clarinet, I move chromatically upward from a fingered E3, all the way until C6. As you can hear, the pattern repeats itself after crossing the break (B4). You can also hear a fairly prominent whistling sound (though I think it’s slightly more audible on the recording than in real life). That’s not my lips, that’s the reed. Although, this is definitely a technique that could be combined with whistling! http://heatherroche.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/bb-breathing-at-mouthpiece-with-reed.mp3

I think this effect is particularly cute. Low, whispery airy notes on the bass clarinet, allowing high harmonics to just slip out. It’s quite easy to do, isn’t tiring at all and I think it’s quite effective. Here’s low C, C#, D and D#, rotating through the different harmonics. It would be just as easy to hit individual harmonics or to change the order, little glissandi would also work quite nicely. Just think of them as a quiet version of the spectral multiphonic:

This is a little bit gimmicky and one could argue that it doesn’t really belong on this blog post, but here’s a kind of bizarre way one can use the clarinet. Take off the mouthpiece and barrel (though some players do this with the barrel on, I’ve never managed it that way), and play the clarinet more like a flute. Here’s a chromatic octave, fingering from E4 to E3 (and then again fast):

Thanks for reading and listening, hope you found the post useful. Please do get in touch with any questions, and keep in mind that the best possible thing is to work these things out in collaboration with a clarinetist. For inspiration on that front, please check out my posts on collaborating and on professionalism for young composers!

30 Responses to …on writing air sounds for clarinets

Where do you stand on singing and playing? I’ve done it with flute a lot and it can be quite effective but I thought it always sounded a bit naff on clarinet – because the sung voice and clarinet tone rarely seem to merge. But a while a go I heard a guy who seemed to be doing it really well. Is it just him?!

Happy Birthday!
I suppose there’s probably a number of ways you could do this, but I would basically use some kind of spectral multiphonic notation, with the fundamental using whatever your breath notation notehead of choice happens to be, and a very quiet dynamic… not sure that really clarifies much, but there are quite a few different ways to notate these spectral multiphonics. Maybe that’s for another blog post… :)

You’re not a dunderhead! These things all have different names. Not sure if this link will work like this, but they’re the ones that sound like this: “https://heatherroche.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/spectral-glissandi.mp3

Wow, this is a nice library of sound and information, Heather! Thank you very much for sharing this with the world.

I got really interested into the harmonic whispers you demonstrated in the Bass Clarinet and I wonder if it is possible to do it with the Bb one. Also, how do I write this on the score? Do you have rhythmic control over the notes or they just pop out ocasionally?

They are also possible on the Bb clarinet, but aren’t as strong and not that many harmonics are possible. I do have reasonable rhythmic control over them (I would avoid writing super fast things) (but it does take some considerable practise to get this, so a non-new music specialist might have a hard time!). You can notate the pitches above, in a separate stave or with some kind of graphic notation, that’s kind of up to you and what suits your practice in general :)
Hope that helps!
Best,
Heather

Thanks, Heather! Very helpful. I have a follow up question. Can you produce an air sound while also doing random key clicks? I’m pretty sure I’ve heard this done, but I’m curious how it effects the air sound itself.

Hi Anna! Yeah, you can… the effect on the air sound depends on how much pitch material you’re using, but basically if you stick to the left hand for air sounds (so from middle C to the Bb above that, written pitches), then you can reserve the right hand for key clicks on the lowest pitches (where the biggest keys are, sounding E, F, F# and G# below middle C) — that’s really just an example, but it’ll work!

Hi Heather! Thank you very much for all this information, it’s really useful! :) I’d like to know if it’s possible to make the air sounds on the bass clarinet avoiding the sound of the key clicks just like the case of the Bb clarinet which has a more subtle attack. I mean, in the first example with the Bb clarinet I just hear the air but in the example of the bass clarinet I also hear the sound of the keys, is that possible to avoid?
Thank you very much for everything!
Angie.